Roche reports strong performance in first half of 2015

Roche has announced its financial results for the first six months of 2015, during which it delivered a group sales total of 23.56 billion Swiss francs (15.67 billion pounds).

This represented a year-on-year increase of six percent in constant exchange rate terms, or three percent in Swiss francs. The improvement was driven by significant growth of sales of oncology and immunology medicines, as well as an upward trend for the diagnostics division, thanks to robust demand for immunodiagnostic and molecular diagnostics products.

Strong performing brands included the likes of Avastin, MabThera, RoActemra and Esbriet, with the company's sales performance helping to fuel a seven percent increase in core earnings per share.

Additionally, Roche reported encouraging clinical trial data for a number of important new pipeline therapies, including the multiple sclerosis drug ocrelizumab and the multipurpose oncology agent atezolizumab.

Severin Schwan, Roche's chief executive officer, said: "Based on the strong first half, I am confident we will reach our full-year targets for 2015.”

The firm continues to expect sales to grow in the low to mid-single digit range at constant exchange rates in 2015, while core earnings per share are targeted to grow ahead of sales.